40-year-old delivers for DoorDash to help pay down her $100,000 student loan debt—on top of her full-time job

Growing up in Connecticut, Leslie was surrounded by family members who were educators, which influenced her to pursue a career in the field.

However, she didn’t factor in how much she would be able to earn working in education, compared with the student loan debt she would need to take on in order to gain the proper credentials, she says.

“I was always following my passion instead of really thinking logically about the career field versus the income,” she says. “Education is one of those few fields where you need a high level of education versus the amount of money that you will be compensated for.”

Although Leslie has been chipping away at her student loan debt for about 15 years, she says it’s been worth it in order to pursue her passion.

“This is the work that I love,” she says. “I love giving people information that I didn’t have.”

At the end of the 2017 school year, Leslie’s district underwent massive layoffs and her school ended up closing, prompting her to move to Houston. She had family in Texas and knew the cost of living would be cheaper than in Connecticut.

She initially landed a job at a charter school. A year later, she was offered a job as a program manager at a university, which she still holds today. She continued repaying her student loans, but her payments only went toward the accumulated interest. Despite making consistent payments, her principal balance remained at $101,000.

However, since Leslie had private student loans that didn’t qualify for forgiveness, she still had a balance of around $40,000, so she decided to pick up a part-time job as a DoorDash delivery driver.

“I just wasn’t making enough money to make a dent in my debt and I knew I could do it a lot quicker if I had something like DoorDash to help compensate my full-time earnings,” she says.

Over the course of five years, from 2018 to 2023, Leslie earned around $72,000 total working part-time as a DoorDash delivery driver.

She initially bought a certified preowned car to make deliveries, but it came with even more debt. Leslie used her early DoorDash earnings to eliminate her car loan, then began throwing the rest at her remaining student loan balance.

The amount she earns each year depends on how many hours she worked. When she began in 2018, she earned around $6,324. By the next year, she had more than doubled her earnings to nearly $18,000.

Leslie usually makes deliveries after work on weekdays, and enjoys being able to use the flexible hours to her advantage. At one point, she was working an average of 30 hours a week through DoorDash in addition to her full-time job. Currently, she only spends about five hours a week on the side hustle.

But Leslie’s hard work has paid off. As of 2024, she has whittled down her remaining balance to around $18,000.

“It was really important that I got a lot of my student loan debt taken care of because then I was able to dedicate that back into myself and my health and my mental wellness,” she says.

By 2023, Leslie’s car was experiencing significant mechanical issues. One night, it almost caused her to be stranded while making a delivery.

Leslie decided to sell it and use the money to buy an electric bike, which she now uses to get to work and make deliveries.

“I intentionally did not decide to buy a new car,” she says. “I had pretty much covered a lot of my debt that I wanted to pay off anyways, so it was a really great time to just kind of move on and not have a car.”

Plus, she says not having a car saves her money due to not needing to pay for parking, car insurance and other related expenses.

“Getting around Houston has been actually pretty easy,” she says. “When I’m going to the grocery store, for example, I can put all my groceries in my saddlebags and that kind of takes care of everything. It’s also really great to use the metro rail line.”

Here’s how Leslie spent her money in February 2024.

• Housing and utilities: $1,408 for rent on a loft apartment, heat, water, electricity and Wi-Fi
• Insurance: $622 on health, dental and vision insurance
• Discretionary: $436 on household goods and shopping
• Retirement savings: $400 toward 403(b)
• Food: $271 on dining out and groceries
• Subscriptions and memberships: $245 on her gym membership and Hulu subscription
• Student loan repayment: $238 toward her remaining private student loan balance
• Phone: $47 for her phone bill

Leslie uses the zero-sum budgeting strategy to manage her money, which means she assigns every dollar of her paycheck toward her various expenses.

“I allocate every single dollar until it hits zero so that I understand where every expense came from,” she says.

She makes sure to factor splurges into her budget as well, such as buying workout clothing from GymShark.

“Even if you’re still paying off debt, you still have to have some level of a lifestyle,” she says. “I do enjoy making sure that I have proper workout clothes and like to make sure I’m looking presentable.”

One financial tool Leslie doesn’t use is credit cards. Although when used responsibly, credit cards can help you build up your credit score and earn perks like travel rewards, she wants to avoid taking on any more debt while she focuses on paying down her student loans.

“I could always get into more debt if I want more debt,” she says. “In the meantime, my focus [is on] the debt that I currently have.”

Leslie has around $1,000 in savings, which she says is enough to cover any unexpected expense that may arise. “I haven’t really needed to build a larger emergency fund yet because my liabilities are so low at the moment and I have insurance,” she says.

She also has around $96,000 saved for retirement between her 403(b) plan and Roth IRA.